How more text messages can make you happier

I'll admit it, I'm a compulsive cell phone checker. I mindlessly click my screen throughout the day, all for the sake of that little rush of affirmation I get when I see someone's reached out to me via text.

Which is odd, right? Don't we hear all the time that text messages are an impersonal form of communication, a means of spreading illiteracy and degrading of our culture?

There may be something to that joy I get from receiving text messages, says a UC Berkeley psychologist. Adrian Aguilera started sending automated text messages to his patients with depression back in 2010.

"The feedback from patients offers new insight into the human need for regular contact or check-ins for mental health professionals, even if only through automated technology," Aguilera said in the press release.

Recently, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation rewarded Aguilera with a $75,000 grant to continue looking at the value of supplementing counseling with text message communication.